The art of waiting to name a First Choice School

[Schokolade]

<p>OP–Here is the link to a thread that I started last year on this topic, when my D was considering which college to name. There are good additional comments beyond the first post, so you should probably read the entire thread. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1103731-how-choose-your-first-choice-college-national-merit-purposes.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/1103731-how-choose-your-first-choice-college-national-merit-purposes.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I am a great admirer of mom2collegekids for all the time that she spends helping others on CC! I agree with just about everything written by mom2collegekids that I’ve ever read, except this one little thing. The NM materials state that a student can be “offered” only one official NM scholarship, so it is important to keep this in mind when submitting one’s first choice, and not mere semantics. She is correct, of course, in noting that this does not apply to the huge unofficial scholarships some colleges offer.</p>

<p>Below is the basis for my point that it is indeed important that a student not be offered an official NM scholarship from one source if he believes he would probably be offered a larger official NM scholarship from another source, from this official NM publication: <a href=“http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalmerit.org/Merit_R&I_Leaflet.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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REPORT OF A SPONSOR COLLEGE AS FIRST CHOICE
Consideration for a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award is limited to Semifinalists who qualify as Finalists and who also

1. report to NMSC that a sponsor college is their first choice (see the list of college sponsors included in the “Competition Instructions” section of the National Merit Scholarship Application);
2. have applied for admission to the sponsor college; and
3. have not been offered any other National Merit Scholarship (corporate-sponsored, National, or another college-sponsored award). No student will receive more than one scholarship offer from NMSC.

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NOTE: If NMSC receives notification of a change in college choice from a Finalist after mailing a college-sponsored Merit Scholarship offer to that student, the Finalist cannot be offered another college-sponsored Merit Scholarship award. This applies even if the new choice of college is one that also sponsors Merit Scholarship awards. Therefore, a Finalist who has previously reported a sponsor college as first choice but is uncertain about it may choose to notify NMSC that he/she is now “undecided”; such notification must be received at NMSC, via mail or by fax to (847) 866-5113, before April 25. The Finalist can subse- quently report a firm college choice that NMSC receives by May 31.

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